French Giants Tipped to Hijack Spurs Swoop For Full Back

Among the English clubs interested, we were reportedly leading the way to sign the 17 year old in the summer, but PSG`s interest could complicate matters.

The England Under 19 international has been in supreme form in the Championship this season with 14 goals and four assists in 37 league games. He only signed a new deal back in June, but his performances are attracting a great deal of attention.

Personally, I think a young player like him would regret joining PSG ahead of us. Under Poch, he could see his development sky rocket, and he could also get the game time he needs if Danny Rose does leave the club as speculated in the summer.

The fact that he is equally capable of playing on the wing, as well as full back, is another plus point. He has played half of his games at left back and half in midfield this season, and he would be a very good addition if we were to capture his signature.

Certainly, the money on offer from France could be hard to turn down, but let`s hope he has his head screwed on the right way by prioritising his career ahead of financial rewards. Should we sign Sessegnon in the summer? Let me know in the poll!

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"Should we sign Sessegnon in the summer? Let me know in the poll!"

Did you mean to discourage discussion on the thread? lol. I'd sign the lad if he's got his head screwed on right. Never seen him play, but he must be okay given all the hoopla over him for a long time. But if we don't get him, so be it. I can't get too excited over a lad I've never seen, no matter the hoopla. I'm happy to get players who've generated no hoopla, like Davidson Sanchez, but turn out to be aces on the pitch. Nothing like a nice surprise. With Sessegnon, the only surprise would be finding that he's not as good as advertised.

The new Bale - sign him up and pin him and KWP down - full-back sorted for the next decade plus. That's how you build championship winning side - Sanchez, Foyth, get them young and let them grow together.

I don't watch Fulham on a regular basis. Correction: I don't watch them at all... I'm not sure there are even that many Fulham supporters that watch the team that regularly...

It's amazing what media and football-fan hype can do for a player, when a kid from the Championship can receive such praise and recognition from supporters of other clubs, who most probably have only ever seen the guy play a couple of times, if at all.

It seems that on VS, we are going to have at least 1 article about the guy every couple of months until he finally leaves the Cottagers. Whereby someone like me will say, "I haven't a clue" and others will say, "He's the new Bale".

Bale himself was young when he arrived at Spurs from the Saints and it took him almost a good 3 seasons to become a regular 1st team Spurs player of note. (Injuries, operations, Ekotto and poor form were the reasons why it took this time). And then it took a further 3 seasons for him to become the 'superstar' that we eventually flogged to Real for a small fortune.

Maybe Ryan would do well to cut out the middle man all together (Spurs), and move directly to PSG or Real or Barca or?

HT - having watched clips of him he does look a talent and seeing as it's Fulham the next best option in London is us. They'll never sell to Chelski and he does kiss the badge which suggests he'd never go there and as for Arse we're currently well above them and proven track record in developing young British talent and giving them a go. Look at Wilshere, Walcott, Jeffers, etc - not so good across the pond. Leonhardsen, Dembele, with others going the opposite way means we have a good understanding with Fulham so for all sorts of reason's it's natural we'd be linked and a high probability that we'll get him if we want him which looking at what he's doing at my actual local club (been many a time to the Cottage in the past) suggests top draw beckons.

I know El Jefe and I have seen him play a couple of times over the past couple of years and I was impressed whilst watching without knowing the hype at the time and so I didn't take any special notice of him. It was the same for me with Bale and later Dele...

I also don't see why the guy would leave Fulham for Spurs right now only to be probably another prospect that can't get ahead of Son or whoever and then doesn't live up to his potential anyway. Also, I have a feeling it will be down to whether Fulham are promoted back to the PL this season as to when he will eventually leave them. He may want some time with his boyhood team in the PL before he moves. I said before on here that if I were him, I would do just that...

Anyhow, I can only ever fully judge a player once I see him in a Spurs shirt. I'm one of those football supporters that is so biased toward THFC that I don't have much interest in other clubs and their players, especially from the lower divisions. (Until they play against Spurs that is). I waste far too much or my precious time on the Lilywhites as it is.

I don't doubt yours and others knowledge of him as such and I am only writing from my own perspective. And very much with a cynical view of the hype that surrounds so many young footballing prospects these days.

It was for England that I watched him, not Fulham. But my impression of him was really as just 1 player of many that impressed me during the 90 minutes of those games. And, without me taking anything lasting from it other than enjoying those matches in general.

Even in this article he is being spoken about as a potential left back to replace Rose and yet even I know that he has since moved forward as an attacking player for Fulham since they bought themselves a new LB in January. Even if we were to consider him as a full back/wing back we have Davies who IMO is vastly underrated and has much more experience of the PL himself. If we were to buy him as an attacking left-footed/sided midfielder who does he then get ahead of? Son? ... I'm just asking the questions here that I never see asked in respect of the young lad...

Is there a scenario where Sessegnon moves back to LB though? Personally, I don't think you'll see him play there again after his successful transition to playing further forward. If Rose leaves, I have a feeling that we'll need to look at someone like Bertrand or Cresswell unless we find someone from abroad. Luke Shaw seems a high risk and Poch would need to decide whether he can get him fit and firing. If we have aspirations to win the Prem, CL and cup competitions, there's not exactly a bunch of available left backs in European football.

As for Sessegnon, I'd love to see a player like that join Poch's revolution. I'm also wondering whether Southgate should save his 23rd WC squad place for him. He seems to be the type that plays without fear and is an unknown to the other country's managers. Perhaps the type of player we need on the bench in Russia.

HT - you are right though. Fulham brought in Matt Target and they've won 6 and drawn 2 with him at LB. He's part of the platform to allow Sessegnon to move further forward in the 2nd half of the season. Even before that, I believe Sessegnon was still playing further upfield, but can't be sure. I do have a mate who's a Fulham season ticket holder and he doesn't see Sessegnon as a LB anymore.

That is true Guyver. And probably why, (even with my cynical outlook), that I am bothering to post about a guy that I hadn't really taken very much notice of before and had to think hard about actually seeing him play in the first place... I'd make a rubbish scout. :-)

muttley, It's what I've read about. I do play the devils advocate in a way sometimes, because even if I don't watch a guy play regularly, I do look them up when they are talked about as potential Spurs players.

He looks promising. Because of the hype I actually watched a couple of Fulham games (when they are on Sky and the local pub will agree to put on an English Championship game - ie not very often ;-)) to see what he was about. In those games he looked OK but not a once in a generation talent, but it's a very small sample size and obviously the goals speak for themselves. The question for me is that with the amount of hype surrounding the player, is he going to be worth it? Nobody knows what his best position is going to be, going forward. When we bought Bale, we did so for 7 million. I read an article a few weeks ago quoting 50 million for Ryan. I don't think he'll cost as much but even if he costs half, it'd still be huge for a player with a very limited track record of success. I'm all for taking a gamble on a player for less than 10 million (ie Foyth), but I expect finished articles for any player worth 25+. There is nothing about Sessegnon's CV so far which would be a guarantee for success in the PL. Success in the lower leagues is an unreliable indicator. So accepting that we are gambling on the player translating that success in the PL, the maximum amount we should be willing to dedicate, for me, is 10 million. And I just don't see Fulham going for that.

Very good prospect, but I cant see him playing at left back no more, especially after such success playing further up, if he comes maybe he'll be a replacement for Lamela.....totally agree with HT with all the hype about a player most don't watch.

His Grandmother was also a very good young footballer and always showed a lot of potential. But pro football was never really for her. And, as a young woman with dreams and ambitions of an exciting life away from the hype-driven world of pro-soccer, she left the Fulham academy for a full and joyous life with the Royal Navy... Well, she hang out with some sailors for a while and regularly entertained them with some keepy- uppy and the occasional bout of 3 and in! WHAT!?

BS, I don't quite get your position on how much money you feel the guy is worth and how much you yourself think Spurs should pay for him. Whilst all the time complaining that Levy (on behalf of the club) should be spending so much more on players in the first place. Given that what you call the finished article would probably cost 50m or more anyway, (Ie, Walker)... If we were to buy him for north of £30m, it seems that you would then complain about Levy spending too much. As you did with Sanchez. As many did with Lamela and then Son...... I really don't understand this hypocrisy on the clubs spending, with many supporters. What Fulham may want and demand for him will reflect his worth to them and be relative to the riches of the club that eventually do purchase him. After all they have coached and nurtured him for the past 10 years, regardless of his current age and experience...

HT - It's about spending on proven quality. Again it comes down in my confidence in our club's ability to find good players for little. For every Alli there have been 10 Stamboulis, NJies, Chiriches,... If our track record was better and our recruitment team got it right more often than not, I'd be more inclined to trust them blindly. Sadly, not the case. Just to clarify: I never complained that the club was spending 40 million on a CB. I was just worried about it being on Sanchez. Should the club decide to invest significantly in players we know can improve the club, I'm all for it. As to what Fulham may or may not want, a lot of it will depend on what Ryan wants. Fulham may decide they want 50 million, but if Ryan is dead set on leaving and refuses to play for Fulham again until he's sold, Fulham will have to take whatever it is the buying club are willing to pay...

Okay, fair enough, BS. Maybe not you but other supporters definately do fit my description. But it's always a risk whatever the cost. And especially if a player turns out to not be the right fit. But, players are not considered wrong I presume, when they are first bought... People complain about Sissoko a lot of the time whilst mentioning the money he cost. But even at a third of the price, if he was not considered good enough by Poch, he wouldn't be playing as much and he'll be sold on. He was obviously bought at the price we paid because the club thought him to be worth the gamble, whether we as supporters like him, rate him or not. ... If that makes any sense. :-)

But, even with Sanchez, maybe he will prove more a bargain for us than the bargain that was Toby. Given his age, his talent and him actually being fit and able to play at the moment and presumably, not yet requesting that his wage be doubled.

Every club gets some transfers wrong. But looking at our squad, most of them being the result of transfers, we seem to have done as well as anybody and better than most! Our position on the table would seem to support this, too. Personally, I don't much care how many come in or how many go out as long as it results in the kind of cohesive squad of players that we currently enjoy watching.

There is the recent Chelsea 'bargain buy' that is young Ross Barkley. A player many Spurs supporters desperately wanted and at the money he went for was apparently a no-brainer, in spite of how much his wages would be...... He moves to Chelsea (his choice) and not Spurs. He is there for 5 minutes and he suffers yet another hamstring injury after being out for half a year of so with a similar problem. He has no known return date from this. Hardly a bargain when he ain't even fit to play. But, who was to know? Perhaps Chelsea's medical team missed something?

Spot on Geof. It doesn't make sense to nit pick and count every single good/bad transfer, when you can simply look at the end result, ie the current squad, for proof of how successful/unsuccessful our recruitment policy has been relative to other EPL clubs. I think most would agree we've done well in that department. The ones who don't, tend to be the ones who expect trophies for some strange reason.

These are the sort of players we have to aim for, because we can’t buy Neymar etc. The championship is a tough league and he is the standout player in England at his age. He will be highly sought after by numerous clubs this summer. With Davies he would provide variety on the left as the more attacking left option. I like rose a lot but will he ever get back to his best?

Given some of the clubs allegedly interested in this lad even before the likes of PSG came on the scene, the likes of Man City and Man Utd, he was almost certainly out of our price range in terms of both fee and wages, so perhaps we should concern ourselves with that we can afford, rather than that which we can't.

I have to agree with Belgian in that our recruitment performance overall is not that impressive. Yes we have signed an odd gem, but we signed 7 players with the Bale/Modric proceeds, with only Eriksen emerging, and we have also signed a catalogue of strikers who have failed to shine, remember Rebrov, Postiga, Bent, Bentley, Soldado, Jannson, and Lloriente, with Berbatov and Son as successes, and have brought through Kane. Yes we signed Bale (as a FB until HR converted him). The king's ransom that was wasted on the aforementioned gang could and should have been better invested.

"when you can simply look at the end result, ie the current squad, for proof of how successful/unsuccessful our recruitment policy has been relative to other EPL clubs." Given that our best player was bred not bought, and that this very player is in fact responsible for delivering more points to Spurs than any other, I'm not sure that our current position can be attributed to our recruitment policy by any stretch of the imagination. We are doing relatively well in spite of our catastrophic recruitment, not thanks to it. The ones who can't see this are usually dead set in their opinions and usually lack any sort of mental flexibility to accept other points of view it seems.

Kane is our best centre forward, BS. But could he be as good at doing what Christian does in his position? Would Harry score as many goals without such great players surrounding him? Maybe, maybe not ... You also complain about our lack of home grown success too. But surely it is the end result that counts... And how you got there, warts and all.

To wade in - perhaps we bought what was available to us at the time and attainable to keep going and in this respect we haven't done too badly overall to re-coup transfer spends every year - every little helps and the academy has certainly helped immensely lately in this regard (Caulker, Mason, Bentaleb, Pritchard, Carroll, etc). Will be interesting to see now we hopefully become an established top 4 team with a brand new state of the art stadium what it will bring in terms of player recruitment and accuracy in terms of getting it spot on. Suddenly a whole new market of player opens up and not necessarily for impossibly ridiculous prices either. Money is not the only object, club prospects are also.

Rose came as a winger now he's a LB, Bale a LB now he's a LW/LF. Depends on how you nurture their talent. £15-20m plus add-ons would be more realistic - what a bargain Dele Alli truly was. Either way with the kind of talent on show we have to buy him - he's local enough aswell and a true Brit in future as regards the rules.

Oh and Harry is not responsible for our great defensive stats these past couple of years,once they get past our high press that is. :-) It's not all about scoring goals. It's as much about preventing them too.

BS, so our main striker is responsible for delivering more points for Spurs than any other player? What a surprise... That applies to most teams I'd have thought! What about possession stats, chance creation stats, defensive stats? Its a team game. Lukakus goals didn't turn Everton into a top 4 team. If our recruitment policy has been "catastrophic" what does that say about the teams who have finished below us in the last 5 years or so? Ridiculous statement.

Recently, you stated that if we miss this window of opportunity to win trophies, bigger clubs will start buying our players. I suppose what you really meant to say, were "bigger clubs will buy Kane"..

Don't know how we were able to compete with and at times dominate the likes of Dortmund, Juventus and Real Madrid with so many disadvantages. We apparently have a manager who struggles with subs and tactics, plus the club has a "catastrophic recruitment policy". Must be luck.

palmover, you can dominate a team and still lose if you don't finish your chances. Happens very often in football. Juves very knowledgeable fans were booing their own team on several occasions in the 1st leg for a reason.

We could quite possibly win the FA cup having been dominated on Final day by a superior team. Let's say City, losing by a solitary Walker own goal. It happens. That should confuse you quite a bit palmover. And my only disappointment at that result would be not seeing the look of bewilderment on your face...

Guyver - Lukaku is far form delivering the most points for United, and you can't say Chelsea overly count on Morata/Giroud/any of their strikers for points. Liverpool seem to be spreading the load around and Firmino (their main striker) isn't really soley responsible for lots of points by himself either. So I guess that puts your theory that "That applies to most teams I'd have thought!" to bed. Is it any doubt that we'd probably struggle to replace Kane, individually, more than any other player? How many years have we been in the market for a striker? How many have panned out? Losing any good player hurts but in our specific set of circumstances, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that losing Kane would hurt more than anything.

"Don't know how we were able to compete with and at times dominate the likes of Dortmund, Juventus and Real Madrid with so many disadvantages. We apparently have a manager who struggles with subs and tactics, plus the club has a "catastrophic recruitment policy". Must be luck." Because we all know that "competing" and "dominating at times" is the end goal of any football game... The big difference is that when it matters, those teams, more often than not, find a way to get the result. Of the 3 team you list, 2 of them are actually still in the CL, a competition we had apparently prioritised. The 3rd is still in Europe, in the EL, a competition you seem to value so much. But I'm sure you can point to some flawed, warped and personal definition of success to say that all of our achievements are, in fact, remarkable.

BS .... Are you getting excited? We must have a very good chance of silverware in the Cup .... if we can only get past Swansea. If we do win the cup what are you going to comment about next season? Your options would be severely limited! :-)

Geof - I'd start by praising all of the people who deserve it, for delivering long overdue silverware to THFC. That should keep me busy for a few months. But as you correctly point out: let's get past Swansea first. And then there are still 2 games after that, potentially against strong teams.

I think many Spurs fans have said the same about Toby, BS. People have said the same about Christian when he didn't play recently and the team put up a poor show. Folks have said the same about Rose and of course Walker, Dembele and Jan too. Now they say it about Son. That is that losing Kane will hurt us, etc. Incidentally, these are all players that have at times been slagged off by THFC supporters for not being good enough, enough of the time. All except Toby that is, and yet we have done very well thank you, in his absence.

Kane is fantastic but he isn't the only goalscorer around. There will be other (perhaps), 'Championship' grade forwards waiting in the wings to prove themselves, (as Harry has), that would surely benefit from our great overall team play. And, with the countless opportunities our team are very good at creating.

You seem to be insisting that we are indeed the 'Harry Kane team'. Pep would be amused by that, I'm sure.

Funny thing is BS, is that if a Gooner or Chelsea or Liverpool or United or City supporter was on here right now, spouting a lot of the highly opinionated stuff that you have, you would no doubt be on the defensive and making some very stern points against their views which happen to be (apparently) your views... I've seen you do it man. And that's put up similar arguments against opposition supporters that some of us have put up against yourself.

Anyway, I'll leave you be for now. There's enough of us up against your opinions on here that you may start to think that we are the enemy and not your fellow, Lilywhite partners in crime... Up the Belgians! ... I do love a bit o' Belgian chocolate, washed down with a Belgian beer, whilst dancing with wild boar, in the Ardennes!

HT - just different fans, all striving for the same thing, but with different opinions of how far we are that's all. The one thing to remember is to not get too caught up in any of it. Everybody is right, depending on where they come from. And as far as having to face up to several posters who disagree, that doesn't bother me. As VS has shown, there's a collection of opinions and quite a few posters who agree with my views, even if they don't comment on every article. And again, not to be right or wrong, but just because someone is in the minority doesn't mean he/she's necessarily wrong. Galileo was once ridiculed for claiming that the earth revolved around the sun... The weird thing is, in some cases, it disappoints me when I am proven right. If I'm right in doubting Levy's intentions, for example, I'll be a victim just like anyone else. It's not about being right or wrong for me, it's about calling it like it is. And we can all rationalise failures how we like, but in the end, a failure is a failure no matter what the mitigating circumstances. It's all a question of how that fits in your personal perception of the situation.

BS ... I'm not sure you are 'telling it like it is'. You're telling it likes it's the worst scenario you can imagine, and it hasn't even happened yet. Spurs have made amazing progress over the last few seasons against all the odds .... and it's still going. That's telling it like it is.

'The earth revolves around the sun'? Come off it. Next you'll be saying the world isn't flat. :-)

BS; We are all apparently right in our views and yet it's you that's calling it like it is? I like that. It's the words of a failing politician shortly before he loses his seat... Galileo? Who did he play for again? Fiorentina and Italy in the late 1600s I think was... I was over the moon when Isaac Newton (Tottenham legend), played him off the park in that infamous end of the world cup tournament final (Italy v England), in 1666.